Book Two: The Sickness/Chapter Fourteen
The fourteenth chapter of Flashfire212's Book Two: The Sickness]], and the longest written so far in the series. Chapter Fourteen: The True Power of Chaos Sonic watched as Will, Lara-Su and Blood faced off, all trying to outsmart the others. Will tried a feint, but Blood knocked Will’s hand out of the way, grabbing the last marshmallow straight from the fire. “Ow, that’s hot!” Blood whined, throwing the marshmallow into the air to catch it, only for Lara-Su to eat it. “Heey, I was going to eat that!” “Suckers, mine now!” Lara-Su bragged. Sonic rolled his eyes, then walked into the group. “Training time, Will. Ready for this lesson?” “Which is? I’ve got my reflexes to just below Tails’ top speed, something my dad couldn’t do. I’m running slightly faster than he was, and I’ve easily matched Shadow and Blood for strength, and they rival my dad. I can draw with or defeat you and Manic in swordsmanship, open the first two gates, and use any of the Chaos and Elemental techniques Shadow and Blood could show me, including the Lightning Blade and techniques I used in the past. What now?” To Will’s surprise, it was Ronan that answered. “Transformation 101: Control of Chaos Energy and Elemental Energy to form and sustain a Super-level or higher form.” “Sweet! Where do I sign up?” Knuckles led his small army into a clearing not far from Jacob’s base. He scratched his head. He hadn’t expected an old Suppression Squad base from the last time Scourge had invaded to be their foothold, but obviously Jacob knew what he was doing. Shade sat in a tree, watching the base through thermal-sighted binoculars. They knew Jacob would be aware of their presence, and made no obvious effort to mask their location. Like the nights before, Shadow made himself, Tails and Knuckles mugs of coffee, using a mixture Col’nesian alcohol in there to keep them wide awake, and honey for flavor. Knuckles found the mixture slightly unusual, but Shadow and Tails happily knocked back a few mugs each. Kyle opened up one of the packs, throwing Knuckles a small satchel, which contained a denim jacket which reminded Knuckles of Wills, and a small but powerful set of emeralds: seven Super Emeralds. These weren’t the Mobian Super Emeralds, which were very closely linked to the Master Emerald and so scattered throughout Mobius, but were still very powerful. Shadow and Shade prepared, grabbing their bags of explosives, while Tails and Kyle prepared all the memory-copying they had to collect all the information on the computers. If it came down to it, either father-son team could complete the mission with only one member, but at the moment that need wasn’t seen. Quickly, the teams ran in. Knuckles, Maddy and Sonia stuck together, with Knuckles splitting off to follow Jacob’s energy signature, which he recalled. Maddy and Sonia entered the main open area to find a battle had already begun. Enna was locked in combat with a very similar looking echidna. Both were using massive fiery blasts, Enna’s black and the newcomer’s blue. Maddy noticed that there was a lot of water in a pair of trenches, and a couple of tanks. “Sonia, stay here. You aren’t an elemental fighter. In fact, watch the entrance. If anyone tries to get in…” “Cover your back. Sure, sis.” Sonia gave her younger sister a hug, which surprised Maddy. “Good luck.” “You too.” Maddy turned and ran into the battle. Knuckles found the Dark Legion members saluting him as he stormed down into Jacob’s throne room. As he entered, pulling on the black denim jacket he’d been given, he took note of the many features that could pose tactical difficulties: low light, which would make his Sharingans strain to see. A big throne, in which could be any manner of hidden weaponry. A number of secluded corners could have snipers positioned in them. It was a tactical nightmare. It had the odds in Jacob’s favor. Knuckles grinned. Time to even those odds. It was then that Jacob chose to speak, and Knuckles noticed the dark figure stand. “Well, Will. It’s the final fight for you. I hope you make it a good one, considering we had all thought you dead.” “Oh, believe me, Jacob. Will would have loved to fight you now, but he gave that right to me. You need better lighting in here.” Jacob stood, throwing off his robes to reveal a black uniform which Knuckles could have sworn was Lien-Da’s leather clothes. Attacked to his belt was a wide array of weapons, including a very angry-looking katana. He discarded all of the weapons but that katana, then turned to face Knuckles. “Ah, the father of the wounded. How appropriate. I won’t use a weapon against you, because I want to beat you at your specialty, an old-school beating.” Jacob added to his words, casting the katana backwards next to his throne, before closing his eyes. “Done the math yet, Guardian? The fact that I went Super in the fight against your son? The fact that this was a Suppression Squad base, with a throne?” Jacob leapt, his pure physical strength carrying him back onto his throne, where the throne and his body both started to glow. “Will warned me you’d fight dirty. You’ve taken a leaf from Scourge’s book, haven’t you?” Knuckles challenged, focused on reaching out, to touch the minds of each of the others. He didn’t often get the chance to wale on a super form, and so he wanted that chance to last. Jacob faced him, his eyes turning to the red with deeply ragged pupils that Will had seen in their fight. Jacob controlled the transformation, letting his fur change to gold as he stood there, up his left arm, then down his right, before filling his head and completing his transformation. “Now, Knuckles, Guardian of the Master Emerald, let us dance!” the super-formed Echidna taunted, as Knuckles formed glowing green flames around his fists. This was going to be fun. Will stood before Sonic, having given his jacket to Manic. The others watched as Will withdrew within his own core, opening the first two gates with ease. Again, he felt a metallic barrier between him and the Chaos Energy in his blood. He forced at it, feeling it flex and twist with his energy tendrils. Finally, it yielded, and he felt an onrush of energy. He listened to Sonic and Ronan now, still with his eyes shut. “Don’t control it, Will! Let it flow through you, channeling its power into you! You’ve got it!” Sonic yelled. Indeed, in his mind, Will could feel different. He knew he wasn’t on the ground any more, but floating. However, something felt…different. There was no sensation of warmth, but instead a tingling and the sensation of his fur being on end. Now, he opened his eyes and instantly frowned. He had lightened in color, now more of a baby blue to his Blazing form’s orange. His streaks had washed out as well, now gray instead of red. “What the heck is this?” Will asked angrily. The others just looked at each other, none of them ever having seen his Blazing form. “It’s your super form, Will.” Sonic tried to reason with the super powered echidna. “Super forms are near invincible, faster, harder hitting and allow you to fly.” However, as Sonic said that, Will faced him, his now red eyes burning into Sonic. “No, this is crap. This isn’t my super form, it’s…different. Normally, I would be orange, with yellow eyes and red streaks, not like this!” “Ah, I get it.” Now it was Ronan’s turn to talk. “You have a Blazing form, or a Burning form. One uses a mixture of Chaos energy and Fire Elemental Energy, the other uses Sol Energy. Like your father, a standard Super form turns you lighter. In my world, your super form would probably have turned you purple, as your father’s equivalent turns yellow.” “I don’t care about that, I’m going to see what kind of Chaos attacks this thing has, then powering higher.” Will raised his hand, and everyone awaited the Chaos Flare to leave his fingers, but it never came. Instead, a ball of orange flames leapt from his fingers, leaving a shrub smoldering. “That’s it? A Chaos Incinerator phase 2? That did nothing!” Will fumed, withdrawing again. Knuckles raced in close, bringing a fist down into Jacob’s face, but Jacob took it lightly, retaliating with a lightning-fast karate chop at Knuckles’ throat. Knuckles was tiring, and through he tried to dodge, the blow took him straight in the chest. It was agony, but he didn’t care. Instead, he tried a side step, to dodge around Jacob. That attempt was doomed to failure, with Jacob stepping to the same side, using a combination of a low kick and high jab to make Knuckles stop. Instead, Knuckles coated his hands and feet in the green Chaos flames, and then let his body take control. He felt himself reach his physical limits, but every hit was at his maximum. Suddenly, he felt himself go flying backwards. Jacob had thrown him at one of the walls! Now Knuckles grabbed the pouch, removing all of the Super Emeralds, which shone with his touch. They formed up around him and started to glow, which instantly Jacob noticed. Quick as a flash, Knuckles saw Jacob rocketing towards him, running like mad, but he could never be fast enough. The emeralds all shone brighter, then Knuckles felt the familiar onrush of energy, beyond that of his super form. Now he was going to have fun. The three girls locked in mortal combat managed to pull away from each other as the blast struck. They met each other’s eyes, all seemingly trying to stare the other down, but really all three of them were charging up an attack. Maddy laughed as she sensed Knuckle’s transformation, before floating backwards on the surface of the water to freeze it under her feet, preparing to attack with all she had. Enna watched the other echidna girl, who was wearing clothes that could be called skimpy. “Sunaya, why are you here? I mean, why come after me and Jacob?” “Well, sis, it’s a mission. That, and I just LOVE annoying you. Who’s the hedgehog?” Enna cursed. “Your guess is as good as mine. She just rolled up with a bunch of others, but I was too busy fighting you to really deal with them.” It was that moment when Maddy decided to attack. Having quickly formed a solid footing for herself, she quickly launched a rapid series of Frost Spears, striking the ground between the two echidnas, making them both leap to the sides. Sunaya quickly used the attack from Maddy as the distraction she needed to get the advantage over her sister. Enna found events rapidly accelerating, beyond what she was willing to accept. She watched as Maddy started forming a ball of highly compressed water and Sunaya started running towards her. Quickly, Enna leapt backwards, forming a pressurized ball of black flames, hurling it at Maddy as Sunaya’s sudden fist slash took her in the shoulder. The battle continued to rage. Shadow and Shade finished placing the explosives on the walls surrounding the power generator. Shadow quickly Chaos Controlled over to the gates at the entrance, noting Sonia’s position as he slapped three explosives on the top span. He heard Sonia squeal in surprise. Shadow shrugged, thinking she’d seen the fight between girls, which he had been sensing for a while. However, as he turned, he caught sign of a massive pulsating mob of Mobians heading towards them. A lot of them bore a resemblance to people he knew, at the point of almost being identical… Shadow shivered. The presence of recolors wasn’t normally a problem. He was friends with many, who had gradually changed their appearance by styling their hair, adding clothes and on rare occasions changing species with specialized surgery. However, so many concentrated in one place in these sort of numbers hinted towards one thing: Trolls. He could have sworn he heard some of them talking, at this distance. Quickly, Shadow Chaos Controlled back to Shade. “We’ve got a Troll issue coming. We’ve almost completed, so I’ll go plant the last few, you help Sonia get ready for a massive fight.” Shade looked at his father quizzically. “How many Trolls are we talking here? I mean, they haven’t appeared in any great numbers since the last war with the Editors…” The look on Shadow’s face said differently. “Just go!” he ordered, grabbing the last of the explosives. Shade was already halfway to Sonia in that time. Tails and Kyle were finished copying all the files, and Tails left a present on the main hard drive, a virus made by Ronan. The father-son combo were happy just to sit back and wait for the signal from Knuckles to leave. However, instead of a signal, they saw an echidna’s head smash into the thin metal door, creating a massive dent. Tails quickly stood, arming his arm blaster as the door creaked open. Shadow slid in, empty-handed. “Shadow? What’s up? Is there something wrong?” Tails asked, watching Shadow carefully for any sign of insecurity. “Trolls, ‘bout to get here. Full army of them. Look, it’s hard to explain, but you guys better be done.” “We are. Let’s go!” Quickly, Shadow, Tails and Kyle ran towards the gates. Will found the fourth gate to be easier than the third to open, the metallic surface giving way after a slight push. However, even as he felt the onrush of power, he didn’t feel any physical change. Normally, he would feel his dreads reorient and flow backwards into a massive amount of hair. This time though, all he could feel was his dreadlocks blowing about with energy, the same as his Super form. Groaning, he opened his eyes to see…nothing. He hadn’t physically changed at all. He dashed towards Sonic to ask why, flying lightly with greater speed than before. Sonic looked surprised at the speed. “Will, you just left afterimages. That’s pretty fast.” “Really now? It’s no visible change from my super form, and only feels more powerful.” Will let a single punch fly out into a tree. Where his normal strength would have left a massive slice in it’s trunk, his fist passed straight through it and started snapping the tree from that point. “Woah. That’s new…but no reason to like this form. I wonder…” Will closed his eyes again, feeling everyone’s eyes sit on him as he drew inwards again. Knuckles was bored. Once the power difference from Knuckles’ Hyper form was shown, Jacob couldn’t even keep up his speed, even trying his Chaos Kaio-ken attack that he’d used on Will, but to no effect. Knuckles had more experience than Jacob, and in his Hyper form Jacob’s punches became mere pokes. He knew the differences between a Super and Hyper form could be great, as Sonic had proven in the duels the two of them when Knuckles went Super against Sonic’s Hyper, and it felt good to do it in reverse. Jacob cursed, now visibly tiring. Knuckles decided that there was no more time to play around; he was more likely to fall asleep than lose this fight. He dropped his head and dashed straight into Jacob, using his speed and power to throw Jacob across the room, before grabbing the echidna and throwing him up against the wall, where Jacob’s clothing provided easy hold points for Knuckles’ mittens. Knuckles applied the right amount of pressure on the other echidna’s neck, nowhere near enough to snap it but enough to cause shortness of breath. “Now, Jacob, I’m only going to say this once. Is that clear?” A single, meek nod from the golden, extremely frightened echidna. “If you go ANYWHERE near Will or anyone in my family, then I will make it my business to obliterate you and whomever you are working with.” Another nod. “Finally, I want you to just…disappear. You’ve got the power to do it, so just Chaos Control away, find yourself a nice young girl and settle down. That way, if I’m forced to look for you, I know not to go anywhere around here. OK?” A final nod. “Oh yes, while I’m holding you back…” Knuckles made a squeezing motion around Jacob’s shoulder, draining the energy from Jacob’s super form while lessening his strength against the young echidna to prevent damage, before simply dropping the echidna, who crawled away from Knuckles, a massive ball of bruises. Knuckles sighed, grabbing the satchel of emeralds and the jacket, and heading off to find Maddy. Maddy found herself in a bit of a problem. Both of the echidnas were pyrokinetics, and both could defend against her attacks with ease. To be fair, both struggled to penetrate her defenses, but neither of them used normal fire. The more gothic looking one, Enna, used black flames, one of the hottest and hardest to control kinds. The other, peppier one, Sunaya, used blue flames of a stunning intensity. She was just as talented as her sister was with fire. Sunaya was also a gymnast. Maddy noticed that most attacks that either Enna or herself threw at Sunaya were dodged with pure flexibility. Maddy found herself dodging a black Flamethrower, only to find a bright blue fireball. Maddy leapt away from it as it exploded into a massive pillar of fire, a startling reminder of the girls’ powers. Suddenly, Sunaya went flying as Hyper Knuckles burst out of a wall, smashing Sunaya away with a Chaos-energy filled palm as he went. Enna attacked with a intensely fast assault of smaller flamethrowers, one from each finger, but Knuckles just took it in his stride, lashing out again with Chaos Energy, which sent Enna into the water trench Maddy had been manipulating. Both of them raced to where the others stood, noting the appearance of the Trolls. Hyper Knuckles didn’t even stop moving, Chaos Controlling the entire group in a single movement, sending them all away from the base as the explosives went off in sequence, supposedly destroying the many soldiers of Jacob’s Legion within there. Nobody was particularly unhappy to sense its destruction. Characters List being populated Category:Fanfic Chapters